Your path to business agility
Agile, Scrum, FDD, Lean, and Kanban There are many methodologies that are considered to be Agile, and several that are similar enough that they’re worth mentioning as part of a larger conversation about workflow and resource management. Within one organization, there can be teams practicing Scrum, Lean, Kanban, and others—how do you know which of...
Being a effective marketer today requires creativity, strategic thinking, and most importantly – focus. With thousands of channels and mediums available to market to prospects and customers, and hundreds of marketing tools to choose from when creating our tech stacks, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. All too often, as marketers we...
How often do you find yourself at work flipping between tabs, unable to complete a thought before moving onto something else? You go from answering an email to checking a Facebook notification to reading some LinkedIn article, and then – what was I doing? Oh yeah, answering that email. It’s the digital equivalent of walking...
WHAT IS VALUE STREAM MAPPING? Depending on your background, you might have different ideas when you hear the term value stream mapping. In manufacturing, value stream mapping refers to analyzing the current state of the processes through which inputs become outputs. The “product” of a value stream mapping activity in manufacturing is a living map...
This is the final installment in a series of posts, in which we describe the trends disrupting the insurance industry – and how Lean can help incumbents survive and thrive amidst the disruption. If you missed the first two posts in this series, start reading here. Human-Centric Business Models Successful InsurTechs are not disruptive because of...
If there’s a word to define the insurance industry today, it’s disruption. Tech-enabled startups are entering the market unburdened by legacy systems or mindsets, and challenging even the largest insurance companies with innovative strategies, products, processes, and customer experiences. Much like what the financial world has experienced in recent years, new regulations are emerging to...
This is the second in a series of posts, in which we’ll describe the trends disrupting the insurance industry – and how Lean can help incumbents survive and thrive amidst the disruption. If you missed the first post in this series, read it here. Trend #2: Emergence of High-Tech Competitors “It is not typhoons or earthquakes...
Part of the beauty of applying Lean to knowledge work is its versatility. Teams in every department — from Software Development to Organizational Development, IT Operations to Marketing Operations — practice Lean in their daily work. The workflows, organizational structures, work types, and associated challenges for each of these teams play out in diverse ways....
What do you do when urgent work constantly interrupts planned project work? Time after time, you put down the project work so you can put out the fire. But then what happens to the prioritized work? It gets delayed. With the unpredictable nature of IT Operations work, it can feel impossible to hit deadlines for...
As a project manager, you probably spend a lot of your time trying to get a clear picture of the current status of your projects. Between spreadsheets, email, and meetings, you’re constantly deciphering and relaying back information to various stakeholders and team members. Kanban project management is a highly visual method that gives project managers...
